Lake watch. Law enforcement.

Glitch In Savage Probe Gets Best Results

Gail Savage's alleged confession last week that she smothered each of her three babies with blankets was the product of a last-ditch strategy, expert interrogation and a dose of good luck, authorities said Thursday.

They said the confession was about the only chance prosecutors had to charge the 30-year-old Wauconda woman, since there was no other direct evidence that she had murdered her children.

The criminal investigation began almost immediately after 5-month-old Cynthia was found dead in her crib on June 28. She was the third Savage child to die mysteriously in just three years.

Michael Savage had died when he was 6 months old in November 1990, and Amber Savage died in February 1992 at the age of 22 days. In each case, Gail and James Savage insisted the deaths were caused by Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, a mysterious malady that also is known as crib death.

Lake County State's Atty. Michael Waller said he discussed Amber's death with fellow prosecutors, because it was so unusual for two children in one family to die from SIDS. However, the matter was dropped at the time because of a lack of evidence.

But suspicions were rekindled when Assistant State's Atty. Matthew Chancey read a newspaper story of Cynthia Savage's death.

After consulting with Waller, Chancey called the Lake County coroner's office and asked to join in the death investigation with Wauconda police and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

The probe was driven by the belief of medical experts that it was highly improbable, if not impossible, for three children in one family to die from SIDS.

The initial stages of the investigation was supervised by Lake County Coroner Barbara Richardson.

Her office conducted an autopsy on the child, which disclosed no evidence of injury, illness or foul play, not uncommon in deaths caused by suffocation or SIDS. Tissue samples were then sent to out-of-state laboratories, while examinations were also conducted of Cynthia's crib and blankets. The air and water quality in the Savage home was also tested.

All of the tests results were negative, leaving investigators with no other option to confirm their suspicions but to directly confront Gail Savage. She had been alone in the house each time one of her children died.

Chancey then devised a strategy that ultimately resulted in the alleged confession, Waller said.

It involved issuing a subpoena for her husband, James, to appear before a Lake County grand jury.

While James Savage, who has not been charged in the deaths, was testifying, investigators planned to interview his wife alone at the Savage home.

When she disrupted the plan by appearing at the courthouse with her husband, detectives approached her in the hallway while he was in the grand jury room and asked if she would talk with them.

When she agreed, Waller said the subsequent interrogation was carried out by Lake County Sheriff's Detective Portia Wallace and DCFS investigator Mark Pleasant. The confession came after she was interviewed for several hours, Waller said.

"It probably worked out better than we planned it," Waller said of meeting Gail Savage in the courthouse instead of at her home.

Johnson, 30, was shot in the head last July with a .45-caliber handgun belonging to Island Lake Patrol Officer Rena Jensen. He was rushed from the trailer the two shared near Wauconda to Lutheran General Hospital. There he languished in a coma for weeks before doctors and family members gave up hope for Johnson and disconnected his life support systems.

But in a miraculous recovery, Johnson regained consciousness and was writing his name just a few days after the respirator was shut off.

"He was speaking in complete sentences," said Iwan. He declined to go into the details of Johnson's answers to the investigators inquiries, but did say Johnson could not remember the shooting because of "traumatic shock."

Based on the half-hour interview, Iwan said, investigators will meet with prosecutors Friday to discuss what evidence they will present to a grand jury.

Jensen was charged with obstruction of justice when she allegedly interferred with police attempts to retrieve the gun, but those charges were dropped after she gave police a statement the day after the July 13 incident.